from The Dolceola Pages(maintained by Gregg Miner, as part of www.minermusic.com)

My introduction to the Dolceola began one day late in
1999, when I received an out-of-the-blue telephone call from blues musician and
producer T Bone Burnett. Having heard of my small but comprehensive
collection of plucked string instruments, he was calling to ask if I had a
certain instrument to rent for a recording project Ė an instrument I had never
heard of, called a Dolceola. Burnett described a type of zither with a keyboard
attachment which played the strings. I asked him if it was like a Marxophone (a
common instrument, and one I had), where the strings are struck by hammers, but
he explained that, no, it was equipped with actual piano keys which somehow
plucked the strings like a harpsichord. As I subsequently learned, the keys are
actually miniaturized piano keys that strike the strings, then dampening
or letting them ring just like a true piano. Burnettís technical error was
understandable, as the sound produced by the diminutive Dolceola is quite
delicate, and does, in fact, more resemble a harpsichord than a piano in
timbre. Regardless, however the mechanism was fashioned, I immediately
knew that without this mysterious instrument, the Miner Museum of Vintage,
Exotic & Just Plain Unusual Musical Instruments would be incomplete!

Searching for information on the Internet, I
immediately discovered a small, dedicated cult of Dolceola enthusiasts, led by
Dolceolist Andy Cohen. At the site of Dolceola custodian Bob Mead, I learned
that, A) there were only about two dozen instruments known to exist (no wonder I hadnít
heard of it!), and B) a little-known gospel musician named Washington Phillips
had used the instrument exclusively, his rare recordings preserved and re-issued
on a CD (I Was Born To Preach the Gospel) on the Yazoo label (believed to
be the only historical recordings known of the instrument). At the time, this latter
"fact" appeared to be universally accepted by Dolceola owners and
blues and gospel musicologists alike - and as so many others before me, I
likewise accepted it on faith.

My next step was to get myself on Andy Cohenís
burgeoning "want list" for a Dolceola - which as he pointed out, was an
extremely slow-moving list due to the extraordinary scarcity of the instrument.
I resigned myself to the fact that I might never obtain one of the instruments
for myself - that is, until the advent of eBay online auctions. As of this
writing, Iíve seen at least five Dolceolas listed and sold on the internet
site Ė though most were in various states of disrepair. I obtained the second
one in September, 2001, and with advice from Bob Mead, set about restoring it.
After disassembling, cleaning, repairing broken keys, re-felting and fitting
with new tension springs, it played fairly well. I was somewhat put off by the
amount of noise (a substantial "click") created by the wooden hammers
striking the metal strings. I attributed this to its age and my imperfect
restoration of the components, and especially to the old dead strings. Once
I replaced the few missing strings, I noticed a substantial improvement Ė the
"click" was still present, but the volume and clarity of the new
strings greatly masked it (nonetheless, I do remember wondering at the time why
I hadnít noticed any similar noise on Phillips' instrument)

Cut to January, 2003, when a colleague brought to my
attention a recent article by Austin Statesman music critic Michael Corcoran. In
it, Corcoran convincingly demonstrates the likelihood that Phillips did not, in fact, play the
Dolceola (this article and topic are addressed elsewhere on my Dolceola Pages).
Surprised as anyone, I threw myself into the fray. The discussion was, and
continues to be, somewhat lively - and ultimately led me down two paths. One was
unraveling the mystery of the actual instrument Phillips did play (my
conclusion: a type of fretless zither, most likely a Phonoharp model or two).
The second was a deeper exploration of the Dolceola - a unique and fascinating instrument,
even without the mystique of the Phillips connection (and ironically, I
discovered an interesting and even lesser known Dolceola connection with
Leadbelly and a session in the forties). Both of the previous topics are
explored in the Dolceola Pages, along with Links to most of the other material
available.